Here is my first story created using Storify. In this slide show, I storified the #edtechchat Twitter chat "Transforming Your Classroom Through Technology and Play."
When I tell people that I am teaching at a school called High Tech High, they often ask me if there are a lot of computers around the campus. Sometimes, they want to know if we are doing things with robots. Or circuits. Or coding. They want to know what makes it “high tech,” and to be honest, I didn’t know the answer until I watched this interview with High Tech High founder and CEO Larry Rosenstock, titled Innovative Teaching and Learning: Lessons from High Tech High's Founding Principal.
At the High Tech High North County campus, where I am currently teaching, there is a decent amount of technology. There’s a laser cutter, a 3D printer, 1:1 Chromebooks, a media lab, and more. But most of this technology really isn’t exclusive to a school like High Tech High anymore. As Rosenstock explains, the “tech” part of High Tech High is actually referring to something a bit different than what most people think of when they think of technology. He says, “You’re taking the methodology of tech, which is group performed, team taught, experiential, applied, expeditionary--you’re producing--and the content of academics...and you’re trying to wed the pedagogy of tech--not the content--with the content of academics.” At High Tech High, the students work in groups, they are taught by teams of teachers working together across subjects, and they consistently produce work in the form of projects that connect to the community. It is this model, and not the computers, that makes the school ‘High Tech.’ Rosenstock connects this idea to some of the concepts behind the way students interact with video games, saying, “Why is it that your average kid, regardless of socioeconomic or educational background, if given an MMO, or video game, computer game, would, left to their own devices, play with it for ten hours a day for fourteen months even though it’s fraught with failure, frustration, setbacks, and successes, but going through and persevering?” Many students are willing to spend hours and hours attempting tasks, failing, and trying again in a video game. In fact, the very nature of video games relies on a certain element of failure to engage the player. The player is compelled to try again and again to solve a problem, and when a player does succeed, he or she is often rewarded with an even harder problem to solve. So how can we use these elements to engage students? Again, Rosenstock’s answer: integrate the pedagogy of technology with the content of academics. Looking back on my experience at High Tech High now, I can clearly see the elements that Rosenstock mentions. I think my favorite is producing. I love seeing the work that the students come up with, and even more important, I love watching the process as students encounter problems, struggle against them, and then find a solution to overcome them; that kind of learning can almost always be found when students are creating. That’s the real definition of technology at High Tech High. It’s like what Rosenstock tells the students: “You can’t play video games unless you’ve made them here...I want kids producing, not consuming. I want kids making those things.” Rosenstock, L. (2012, March 6). Innovative Teaching and Learning: Lessons from High Tech High's Founding Principal. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spn1xGycar8
For just over three months now, I’ve been teaching at a school that follows a project-based learning model. For anyone who’s spoken to me within that time (or for some reason read one of my blog posts or followed me on any form of social media), they’ve probably heard me gush incessantly about project-based learning. I see PBL done every day. I know what it looks like. But, to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I could describe what project-based learning actually was until I watched Jeff Robin’s video on what project-based learning isn’t.
Robin is a teacher at High Tech High, a project-based learning school in San Diego (I currently teach at the sister campus in San Marcos). His comments about PBL are pretty enlightening--not to mention that his insight into the psychology of teachers is uncanny. One really significant point that Robin makes is that project-based learning isn’t project-oriented learning. As Robin explains, with project-oriented learning, the teacher teaches the students “everything they need to know” before the students actually start working on their project. Robin states, “The project is oriented towards the things the kids study in class.” In my opinion, if the students are just being told what they should know before they start a project, then the students are experiencing far fewer opportunities to encounter challenges and overcome them. If they aren’t finding solutions to authentic problems, then they are missing out on an opportunity to experience more authentic learning. In the past, it would have been more difficult for a teacher to teach to a project-based learning model. But with new technologies, such as the internet and social media, students can research, connect, and cooperate in ways that were not possible before. Now, students don’t have to learn everything in the classroom before they create. Instead, they can learn while they create. The learning is happening through the project, and not before it, and that, to me, is project-based learning. Robin, J. (2011, March 2). What Project Based Learning Isn’t. Retrieved from http://howtovideos.hightechhigh.org/video/265/What+Project+Based+Learning+Isn't |
AuthorKelly Wehrley is an educator currently working as a teacher candidate at High Tech High in San Diego's North County. Archives
May 2016
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